Police issue warning after five churches are broken into

posted by WTVN Newsroom
-
3 years ago

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (WTVN) -- Police say five churches have been burglarized over the last six weeks. They're now warning church officials to keep an eye out for suspicious activity during events the houses of worship might be hosting.

"In each one of them, there's no actual breaking to break-in. What's happening is we've found that they're unlocking a door or window in some area of the church and that's what they're using a day or two later to gain access into the building," said Chillicothe Police Officer Bud Lytle.

The thieves seem to be targeting safes and high-end electronics like big screen televisions and audio equipment. Police suspect that they are attending church events to "case out" the church building.

The first burglary happened on October 2 and the latest was on Tuesday. Police haven't released the names of the churches involved for security reasons. Lytle is hoping someone with information comes forward because so far they have little to go on to solve the crimes. Right now police suspect the same person is responsible for all the incidents, but have no solid evidence of that.

"Here in Chillicothe if you go a year, we may have two or three church break-ins at the most. Five in such a short period of time definitely alerts us," he said.

Lytle is worried that as we enter the holidays, a time when churches hold more events, that we could see even more thefts.

"The message is that we want churches and the people working these events to be a little more vigilant and try to look for possible suspicious people looming around," he said.